OTTAWA - On July 5, 2013, Daniel Alfredsson ceased to be the face of the franchise for many Ottawa Senators fans. On Dec. 4, 2014, his legacy could be restored. Alfredsson will announce his retirement Thursday in the city he called home for 17 years. The longtime captain will skate in pre-game warm-ups with the Senators one last time, take a ceremonial faceoff and in the process show that the damaged relationship between him and the organization has been repaired. It puts the shadow, whatever you want to call it - we dont need to talk about it anymore, really, Senators defenceman Chris Phillips said. All the fences have been mended and rightfully so. Alfredsson, the Senators captain from 1999 through 2013, stunned the hockey world last year by leaving to sign with the Detroit Red Wings. His departure after 1,178 games, 426 goals and 682 assists, several playoff runs and a trip to the 2007 Stanley Cup final left raw emotions on both sides. Once back problems prevented the 41-year-old right-winger from playing this season, he told the Red Wings and Senators that he was ready to call it a career. Its only fitting that he does it in the nations capital. Im really happy to see Alfie kind of reconcile with the team, said Dallas Stars centre Jason Spezza, who was Alfredssons successor as the Senators captain. How things ended and him moving on was, I think, a move that he felt was necessary. I think it was probably the right move for him. But now that its over and hes decided hes going to hang them up, I think its good that Ottawas welcoming him back. Spezza, who asked for and was granted a trade this past summer, said of Alfredssons situation that its a little bit of water under the bridge and time heals wounds. Plenty of time has elapsed since Alfredsson spurned the Senators to go to Detroit, where he tied as the Red Wings leading scorer. Thursdays Welcome Home celebration takes the healing process to another level. Alfredsson will announce his retirement at Canadian Tire Centre in the morning, then take the ice for warm-ups with the Senators before their game against the New York Islanders. Itll be the last time the No. 11 is worn on a Senators jersey and the last chance for the future Hall of Famer to soak in the adulation from the crowd before his number is raised to the rafters at some point soon. Its a unique chance for the seminal player in Senators history and the fans to say goodbye to each other. Its great that theyre going to get a chance, coach Paul MacLean said. Lots of times once you leave, its over and done with. So the opportunity of him coming back gives the fans I guess some final closure. Skating in warm-ups is also a first-of-its-kind idea, one that the Senators needed to get special permission from the NHL to execute. The league gave it, and friend and teammate Erik Karlsson is glad to be a part of it. Its the honourable way to end (his) career and celebrate a player thats done so much for this organization and this team, even before the time that most of us got here, said Karlsson, the Senators current captain. Its going to be a thing that everybody will remember for the rest of their careers. Alfredssons career is impossible to forget because as he went, so did the Senators. A native of Gothenburg, Sweden, he was a sixth-round pick, 133rd overall, in 1994 and over the years played in 121 of the 126 playoff games in franchise history. Along the way, lifted the Prince of Wales Trophy and was the spokesman and the symbol of the team for almost two decades. He was a pillar and a foundation of that organization, Spezza said Tuesday in Toronto. Theres not a lot of tradition yet in that city, and he is the first real big player thats played (almost) his whole career there. I think its good that they can recognize him and give him the recognition that he deserves. Last week the team unveiled a video montage of some of Alfredssons most memorable moments with the Senators and the Swedish national team. Set to Coming Home by Ditty-Dirty Money and Skylar Grey, lyrics like let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday and back where I belong set the tone for an emotional reunion. Owner Eugene Melnyk wrote on Twitter last week that Dec. 4 will be a truly special and historic day for the Ottawa Senators. On Monday he wrote that he had spoken to Alfredsson to finalize what will be the biggest Welcome Home celebration Ottawa has ever seen. Even though I think hes come to terms with the decision he made with retiring, I think it might hit him a little bit harder when he comes in the rink again and sees all the people, Karlsson said. I think its probably going to take him a while to realize what really happened. As a young player in the NHL, Alfredsson wasted little time making an impact on the Senators, winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1995-96. Defenceman Mark Borowiecki, who grew up a Senators fan outside Ottawa, said that season was a glimmer of hope for fans. That was pretty early on in our time as a franchise, Borowiecki said. It was pretty neat to see kind of a top-end-talent player like that in Ottawa. Alfredsson spearheaded 15 trips to the post-season, most notably in 2007 when the Senators went to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Anaheim Ducks. He won a gold medal with Sweden at the 2006 Olympics in Turin as the teams leading scorer and helped lead an injury-ravaged 2013 without Spezza and Karlsson for major parts of the season to the playoffs. He was a guy that, through any changeover, he had been there, Spezza said. He had seen the good, the bad and the ugly. He had kind of been a part of things from the start when they were really bad, and he was with us and our captain when we had really good teams and we were knocking on the door to win the Cup, and he kind of saw us regressing a little bit towards the end. Hes a guy thats really been through it all there. Alfredsson went through it all and then some, including the ugly breakup in the summer of 2013 that was hard to see coming. In spite of that, many fans still wear Alfredsson jerseys to games, and pictures of him can still be found all over the arena. Hes etched in Ottawa sports history, something that will be front and centre as he laces up his skates with the Senators one final time. This is where he should retire, Karlsson said. He still loves this organization and this city. As of right now, the Ottawa Senators really show that they love him back just as much. --- Follow @SWhyno on Twitter Note to readers: This is a corrected story. 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When the Dallas Mavericks needed to stop a Golden State rally in the fourth quarter, they looked for defensive help from the rookie point guard playing in just his sixth game.DURHAM, N.C. -- The shot that would have beaten No. 8 Duke hung on the rim, bouncing once, then twice. "It felt like an eternity," freshman Jabari Parker said. Once it fell harmlessly off the rim, the Blue Devils finally exhaled. Parker scored 23 points and blocked one of Marylands two shots in the final 10 seconds of the Blue Devils 69-67 victory Saturday night. "That was vintage Cameron, man," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That was one for the ages." Rodney Hood and Rasheed Sulaimon added 11 points each for the Blue Devils (20-5, 9-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their eighth in nine games and started a run of four games in eight nights by giving the Terrapins a hard-to-swallow loss in their last scheduled visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium. The ACCs top 3-point shooting team was just 5 of 24 from long range and shot 23 per cent in the second half. Duke led by double figures for all of about 15 seconds before scratching its way to the 20-win mark for the 18th straight year. "Sometimes the basketball gods fool around with you when youre not shooting, and they say, Youve got to figure out another way to win this thing," Krzyzewski said. "Our effort those last 20 seconds was spectacular." Jake Layman scored 18 points for Maryland (14-12, 6-7) and Dez Wells -- who just about single-handedly beat the Blue Devils by scoring 30 in last years ACC quarterfinals -- had all 17 of his points in the second half. Charles Mitchell finished with 12 for the Terrapins, but missed two hook shots in the final 10 seconds that would have given them the lead. "I dont know how Charles shot didnt go in," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. "Call the Duke gods." Parker gave Duke the lead for good when his authoritative, one-handed dunk over Jonathan Graham made it 68-67 with about 1:15 remaining. Wells missed a jumper over Hood with about 50 seconds left. Duke milked the shot clock before Amile Jefferson missed a jumper that failed to draw iron, giving the Terrapins the ball. The teams traded timeouts with 18.8 seconds left before Maryland worked the ball inside to Mitchell. He had one hook shot blocked by Parker with about 7 seconds left, and another bounced twice on the rim but would not fall through. "The guys kind of willed their way to the basket," Turgeon said. "It just didnt drop.&qquot; Said Jefferson: "You just hold your breath.dddddddddddd" The rebound made its way to Jefferson, who was fouled with 1.1 seconds left and hit a free throw to end the scoring. Wells couldnt get off an 80-foot heave before the buzzer, sealing Dukes 30th straight victory at Cameron. That tied Stephen F. Austin for the longest active home streak in the country. Duke missed 17 of its first 19 shots in the second half before Jefferson banked one in to tie it at 54 with 6 1/2 minutes left. About 2 minutes earlier, Wells capped a 12-1 run with a layup that gave the Terrapins their first lead at 54-52, and it was a one-possession game the rest of the way. The Big Ten-bound Terps got quite an early earful from the Cameron Crazies, who taunted Turgeon with their classic "Sweat, Gary, Sweat" chant that had been mothballed since Gary Williams retired three years ago. But once Maryland started chipping into -- and eventually completely erasing -- the Duke lead, those jeers stopped. "Im going to miss (the Duke rivalry) like crazy," Turgeon said. "We played tonight for Maryland. ... We played for all our former coaches, former players ... because we knew we werent getting them at our place. This was our one chance." Jefferson finished with 12 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who have a busy week coming up because their rivalry game with North Carolina was postponed due to a nasty winter storm. That game was rescheduled for Feb. 20 -- two nights after they visit Georgia Tech, and two nights before they host No. 1 Syracuse. "This is a fun time for us and this should really be a good time to see where our team is at, to evaluate it and to get better," Jefferson said. That the Blue Devils missed 11 of their first 13 attempts from 3-point range could have been attributed to rust for a team that entered hitting 3s at a league-best 42 per cent clip. But they also were outrebounded 43-36 by the Terps and certainly looked ripe for an upset. They were unable to take advantage of Marylands drought early in the half, instead matching the Terps missed shot for missed shot. Maryland went 5 minutes between buckets early in the second half. Duke finished at 33 per cent from the field while Maryland shot 41.9 per cent. "We beat a real gutty team today," Krzyzewski said, "and we were a gutty team." Cheap Twins Jerseys Wholesale Royals Jerseys Cheap Tigers Jerseys Authentic Indians Jerseys Cheap White Sox Jerseys Discount Blue Jays Jerseys Wholesale Rays Jerseys Cheap Yankees Jerseys Discount Red Sox Jerseys Discount Orioles Jerseys Discount Astros Jerseys Cheap Angels Jerseys Cheap Athletics Jerseys Cheap Mariners Jerseys Rangers Jerseys From China Braves Jerseys Outlet Cheap Marlins Jerseys Wholesale Mets Jerseys Wholesale Phillies Jerseys Cheap Nationals Jerseys Cubs Jerseys From China Reds Jerseys From China Cheap Brewers Jerseys Wholesale Pirates Jerseys Cheap Cardinals Jerseys Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys Authentic Rockies Jerseys Dodgers Jerseys From China Wholesale Padres Jerseys Giants Jerseys From China ' ' '